Strong Willed
by shadowsnowleopard
Summary: Nico finds himself in another fight against his tormentors, but Will steps in when unforgivable names are thrown at his boyfriend. Solangelo. WillxNico. AU. Rated T for slight violence.


**Strong willed Will? I guess. More of a protective Will.**

 **To whom it may concern- Ayano's Theory of Relativity has accepted my offer to be my Beta Reader, but I would still like to thank everyone who responded to the request. And this was the first piece we worked on together, so please let me know what you think!**

"Come on, Nico. They're not worth it," Will said softly, holding a handkerchief carefully to the cut on Nico's face.

Nico looked up at Will's worried face and his muscles started to untense. Nico knew that Will cared more about him than his own pride. And because of this Will didn't care what anyone else said or even did,as long as Nico wasn't involved. Which was where the resident assholes took it today.

"Go ahead and run away blondie," one of them shouted at Nico and Will. "You, and your little faggot."

Will's hand froze where he was wrapping a second handkerchief around Nico's bloodied knuckles. His eyes widened and something inside him snapped. Nico could see as much, and he wanted to do something, but he just wasn't sure what. He had never seen Will be anything but kind and caring. He'd especially never seen Will hurt anybody. But as Nico stared into Will's sparkling blue eyes, there was something else glinting there behind the normal sheen. A pinprick of something that didn't belong there: hatred. Pure and utter rage that these people would dare insult his little angel. This paragraph is great! It's very descriptive and emotional

Will slowly turned to face the idiots standing in the hallway. One of the tyrants wiped away some blood dripping from his nose where Nico had struck him. Will's expression blazed and his fists tightened.

" _What… did… you… say?_ " Will said slowly, his teeth clenched.

However, the teen standing in front of him wasn't deterred. "I said your boyfriend was a _faggot_."

"That's what I thought," Will said quietly.

That smile Nico loved so much was currently gone, a forgotten memory, replaced by a glare and pressed lips. He'd never before seen this side of Will before.

The next few minutes were a blur, but afterwards Will stood above the other teenagers victorious and miraculously unharmed. Blood that didn't belong to Will covered his hands and the front of his shirt. A larger quantity of blood however, was covering the bodies of the boys who made the idiot decision to insult Will's boyfriend. As the bruised and battered boys lay sprawled out on the ground, it made what happened between them and Nico look like a sissy slap fight.

"If you even _look_ at my boyfriend, I won't hesitate to do this again," Will said in a low voice.

The only response was a small groan, which he took as a yes. Will turned to the silent crowd that all looked at him, stunned. To them, Will was the sort of guy that wouldn't even let a spider in the classroom be killed. He would insist on taking it outside and releasing it. But at this moment they didn't know how to react. Will turned to Nico, whose hands were trembling slightly, much to Will's surprise. When Will took a step towards Nico, Nico stumbled back a bit. Nico then turned away and pushed through the crowd.

"Nico!" Will cried out, running after him and ignoring the whispers that followed.

* * *

It took forever, but Will was finally able to locate Nico in the boy's bathroom in the science wing. Nico was curled up in the corner, his head resting on his knees and his raven colored hair messier than usual. When Nico lifted his head at the sound of the door shutting, Will noticed the dried tear streaks still on his cheeks, which made him want to start crying as well.

"Nico?" Will called out tentatively.

When Nico didn't show any resistance, Will slowly sat down next to him, refraining from anything further. Nico looked up at him with his large brown eyes, questions seeming to be flooding out wordlessly.

"Why?" Nico whispered in a hoarse voice, "Why did you take it so far?"

"So you get to beat people up whenever you want, a-and I just have to stand there helpless and wait for you to come back all bloody and broken?!" Will questioned, his voice raising.

At some point tears had begun streaming down his cheeks.

"You're supposed to be the responsible one, the reasonable one that everyone likes," Nico explained, "I'm the one with sporadic anger issues who lashes out. The one who people only talk to because of you."

"That's not true," Will said, his voice dropping, "Not in the slightest."

"Look at me!" Nico shouted, "At what point does anyone say 'Hey, he looks like a nice guy. I'll go talk to him.' The answer is never. I fight because I have to. Because it's the only way to get them off my back. But you-" he turned to Will, "You have another way. Everyone loves you, and you can always change their minds with words. To them, you being gay doesn't make a difference. But with me- it's just another thing to put me on the outside."

Will didn't know when this had taken such a sharp turn, but he had a feeling that this wasn't really spur of the moment, and instead it had been building inside of Nico for a while.

"I see a bit of myself in you," Nico choked, "and that scares me to my very core."

"Oh, Nico," Will muttered.

He wrapped his arms around the dark haired boy and pulled him in close. Nico's fresh tears soaked into the front of Will's shirt. Will kissed the top of his head softly.

"If I'm _anything_ like you," Will whispered in a small voice, "Then I'm the luckiest guy in the world."

Nico shifted, turning his head up to look at Will, his eyes tinged pink from crying. They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments before Nico said something.

"Will," he whispered in the same soft voice his boyfriend had just used, "I love you."

Will pulled Nico in even closer before murmuring into his ear, "I love you too Nico."

 **Note to the readers: I have never personally used the strong language used in this chapter, but my sister, who just graduated high school, tore apart a seventh grader on the bus this year for saying it. So word to the wise-** _ **don't use it.**_


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